Truths No One Tells You About Being a Teen Mom
Before being a teenage mom
If I had known at 16 what I know now, I wonder how life would be. Becoming a mum at a very young age is incredibly tough.
I do not regret being aΒ teenageΒ mother but there are things I wish I had known before.
HAD I KNOWN HOW TO BE MORE COMFORTABLE IN MY OWN SKIN
This one is a big one, a very big one. I have never looked at any confidence in my teenage stage photos; I was self-conscious about everything about myself. What I said, what I wore, how I talked to people. These thoughts really made it hard for me to get comfortable in any social situation. Which is probably why I chose to watch TV at home instead of being social?
And it’s one thing that is still happening to me.No matter how I look confident in my social media photos, is still a large scale introvert.
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The one thing I wish I had known about being a teen mom is how much my life would change. Being a mother changes your life anyways β being young is just a bit more stressful because you haven’t experienced much of life yourself. It’s all a learning experience. I love it. I don’t mind that I can’t go out all the time and party like my friends my age do. But I do miss being able to just get up and go wherever I needed to. I can’t do that anymore. I have a human to look after other than myself. You truly do give up your needs β not completely, but they’re not in first place anymore!”
HAD I KNOWN HOW TO ORGANIZE MY EMOTIONS
One thing I wish I had known was how big of an emotional toll being in separate households from my boyfriend was going to be. It felt like I was a single mother and I developed terrible baby blues, which caused me to leave the father of my baby.”Β I didn’t know at all that a mother and father of the baby have to have a relationship.
HAD I KNOWN ITS END OF SOCIAL LIFE
This is one of the biggest things that affect teenage moms. I am still labeled antisocial because I could not attend social events in my teen stage you get no chance to attend social parties as you have no one to babysit .sometimes you just not attend social events because of self-guilt.
You get no chance to attend social events as people will gossip that you abandoning the baby. You end up being stuck with your children. Even up 40+, all you want is being around your children, and you are labeled antisocial. It’s a result of teen mom struggles
HAD I KNOWN HOW TO DEAL WITH STIGMATIZING
The most difficult part of being a young mother was the misconception and stigmatization of society. Adults are cruel and the lack of support from society puts you down and makes you feel ashamed of being a parent. I also felt that my children were being judged on the sole reason of having me as their parent. I wish I wouldn’t have felt ashamed or embarrassed. It would have made me a much bubbler individual.
HAD I KNOWN HOW TO BALANCE LIFE
I am not yet where I want to be with balancing lifestyle but if I had known by then will be much better I guess balancing high school classes, raising a toddler, and having a social life was the hardest part of teen motherhood.
I was juggling around through trial and error.Β I wish that I would have better understood the impact that my day-to-day decisions had on my child β choices like moving to a boarding school and leaving him with babysitters, spending too much time away from him, and even the ‘normal’ mistakes thatΒ teenagersΒ make.Β When you are aΒ teenageΒ mother, you are prone to making mistakes for two, not just you and those mistakes will affect your kids forever.Β But that sequence of mistakes shaped who I am today, and fostered my desire to make the world a better place for all people who struggle in life.β
What advice would you give yourself at 17-year-old girl? Let me know in the comments!